Having trouble playing DRACULA (1931) (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Leonard]

I recently bought one of the Universal "Classic Monsters" discs, Dracula, and for some reason, the disc will not play in my Toshiba SD-1200...all I get is a "DISC ERROR" message.
Now, I've tried it on both of the 1200 models in the house--one was an older model, the other a newer one with a firmware upgrade--and got the same results. However, it played perfectly on my Cyberlink PowerDVD-ROM drive. (Wonderful DVD, by the way--love the supplements and Philip Glass' new score.)
I know Toshiba players have a reputation for not playing many discs, but out of the 230-plus DVD's I have, this is literally the only one where I've had a problem. So I wonder, will I have any problems with the remaining "Classic Monsters" movies, or was this just a bad pressing? I would really like to purchase the rest of the series, but I don't want to watch all of them on my computer screen.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
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Have you ever noticed anyone driving slower than you is an idiot? And anyone driving faster than you is a maniac!! - George Carlin
ICQ: 55259446 (or just search for "John Shaft"...can you dig?)

 

[SteveGon]

It could be a bad disc. I've never had a problem playing Dracula (or any other disc for that matter) on my Toshiba SD-3109.
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He thought on homeland, the big timber, the air thin and chill all the year long. Tulip poplars so big through the trunk they put you in mind of locomotives set on end. He thought of getting home and building him a cabin on Cold Mountain so high that not a soul but the nighthawks passing across the clouds in autumn could hear his sad cry. Of living a life so quiet he would not need ears. And if Ada would go with him, there might be the hope, so far off in the distance he did not even really see it, that in time his despair might be honed off to a point so fine and thin that it would be nearly the same as vanishing.
-- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

 

[Brad_W]

I also own the Universal Monster set, but own a Sony DVD player. I have yet to have a problem with the Dracula disc or the others within the set.
Not that this will help, but that's my experience with the set.
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"I was born to murder the world." -Nix (Lord of Illusions)

 

[Rob Willey]

Kevin, do you have any garlic or a cross close to your player?
Rob
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"That suits me down to the ground."

 

[James Corey]

I've had the odd problem with an earlier Toshiba SD-2109 that would not load the "McGarrigle Hour" disc and gave an 'disc error' display in the LED on the unit and on the screen showed 'Insert Disc'.... since upgrading to the SD-5109 this problem has disappeared. Apparently there is a firmware upgrade that your Toshiba factory service can perform that should solve this (done for free out of warranty here in Canada).
I now have a problem with the Earth,Wind and Fire in Concert DVD from 1994 that freezes for about 20 secs at the end of a multiangle segment as it segues into "Shining Star" ( one of my EWF fave tunes... figures !)

but only freezes for 2 secs on current SONY and Yamaha machines. Since the latest update on the firm ware did not resolve this, I assume that it's probably a fault in the encoding.

 

[Kevin Leonard]

No Rob, I don't have any garlic or crosses near the player. But I do liberally sprinkle it with holy water and call it a demon (not a Denon ) every now and then.
Thanks for the info everybody. For now, I'm going to assume it was simply a bad pressing...I'll purchase The Wolf Man soon and see how that turns out.
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Have you ever noticed anyone driving slower than you is an idiot? And anyone driving faster than you is a maniac!! - George Carlin
ICQ: 55259446 (or just search for "John Shaft"...can you dig?)

 

[Brian McHale]

I have a Toshiba SD-2109 that I bought in September 1999. I rented the Dracula disc last year and it played fine. I bought the disc recently, but have not had a chance to watch it yet.
I did run into the DISC ERROR problem with a three disc set of equestrian material (my wife is a horse person) that was produced by a small company that used a non-industry standard authoring system. In researching this, I did indeed come across much material indicating that Toshiba players (1st & 2nd generation, mainly) did have a great deal of compatibility problems. There are firmware upgrades available which may or may not solve your problem.
I contacted Toshiba's customer service via e-mail, and received a reply to call them at 1-800-631-3811 (9am to 6pm central, M-F). They were able to direct me to a shop that would do the upgrade (for ~$45, since my unit is out of warranty). However, the shop, when I talked to them, indicated that the upgrade was unlikely to fix my problem, since I have had no problems with DVDs from the big studios (I've probably watched over 250 DVDs with absolutely no problems other than the small-company release).
You might want to look into the upgrade. Since you're having a problem with a fairly recent, big-studio release, it might do you some good.
[Edited last by Brian McHale on September 21, 2001 at 11:13 AM]